


You Can't Brood When Given Pie

by anarchycox



Series: Holidays [2]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Making Out, Modern AU, Pie, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2018-01-02 18:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanksgiving rolls around for the Hawke family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can't Brood When Given Pie

Carver wasn't sure how he managed to pull the short straw.  Thanks to Garrett's wrangling over Halloween he had already been working every weekend in November and it looked like he was now working Thanksgiving Thursday as well.  He looked at his boss and tried for puppy eyes - Cullen was unmoved.  "I'm sorry Carver but this is the system that all of you decided on - and at least you will have the Friday off, so it is not a complete disaster.  Besides you will get triple time for working the Thursday, and extra money is never a bad thing."  Carver nodded, the extra money would come in handy for Christmas presents, and he had to admit, it wasn't horrible pulling Thanksgiving, campus would be emptied out, most of the time would be spent in the office, waiting for any calls to come in.  Shortly after this the meeting ended, and everyone scattered and Carver headed to his lone class of the day.  He hated statistics, but it was one of those requirements for a criminology degree.  He had put it off until his last year, and knew he needed to only pull a C, but even that was a struggle.  He daydreamed through most of the class and then went to pick up Bethany at the library.  He got there and rolled his eyes at the visual of his sister and Merrill cozied up, reading on one of the couches.  He was happy for his sister, dating Merrill seemed to be going well, but he was never a fan of his siblings engaging in PDA (which really made his life awkward as Garrett and Bela never stopped touching each other).  The two women said goodbye and Bethany practically skipped over to Carver.

"Merrill's staying in town and has agreed to come to Thanksgiving dinner!" Bethany was positively beaming.

"Crap." Carver ran his hand over his neck. "I have to work the Thursday, drew the short straw.  Think we can move the dinner to Friday?"

  
"I don't see why not.  Let me text Garrett." Bethany pulled out her phone.  A few minutes later Garrett responded saying that it wasn't a problem, Carver would just have to make extra pie to make it up to them.  This wasn't exactly a punishment.

Years ago, Leandra had decided that each of her children should be responsible for one aspect of Thanksgiving.  Bethany learned how to make a moist, savory turkey and dressing, Garrett made gravy that sonnets should be composed for, and Carver, well Carver baked pies.  With both parents gone, it was really important for the Hawke children to keep up the tradition.  When he and Bethany got home, the three of them sat down to plan the dinner.  It turned out that Aveline would be off to Donnic's family for the weekend, and Varric was headed off on a trip somewhere.  Luckily Anders was able to juggle his shifts at the hospital and would be able to come along, Bela of course was going to be there.  Bethany looked at her twin, "What about Fenris, will he be able to make it?" Carver wished he couldn't feel his cheeks heat up. "I don't know. We haven't really talked since Halloween."  Bethany shook her head and gave her brother a mock glare.  Carver shrugged.  He and Fenris had exchanged a couple of generic how's it going texts, but Sebastian had been busy travelling, so Fenris had been busy travelling.  Garrett chimed in, "I called Seb earlier, they have to go to some political dinner, but should be able to break away for dessert." Carver noticebly perked up at that.  The next hour was spent going over shopping lists, and figuring out who would brave the grocery stores (for once Carver was happy about working the weekend as he couldn't go to the shops).  The Thanksgiving countdown was officially on.

  
He was right, Thanksgiving Thursday was dead on campus.  He had done a couple passes around the dorms and the frats but the place was quiet.  He settled into the office, waiting for any calls, determined to defeat the level of Plants vs Zombies 2 that was kicking his ass.  He was surprised when Cullen came in, bearing a container.  "Jeez man, what are you doing here on Thanksgiving?"  Cullen put the box down.  "I know it is not pleasant to work today, so I brought you and the others, some turkey sandwiches and apple cider."  See this sort of gesture is why Carver actually doesn't hate his job - it's preparing for his future, and his boss is alright.  "Thanks Cull, but shouldn't you be having Thanksgiving yourself?"  Cullen flushed a little.  "Actually, I don't really have any family, so I tend not to celebrate the holiday."  Carver took a good look at his boss, and realized how often the man seemed lonely.  He decided to take a chance, "Hey man, my family is doing the whole massive dinner thing tomorrow, why don't you come over?  We always have too much food."

"I could not dream of imposing."

"Look it's no big deal, just think about it.  You have my address on file, and one more really makes no difference."  Carver ate a sandwich and counted down to the end of his shift.

When he got home, he showered, grabbed a beer and looked at the cooking schedule.  It had been decided that he would make the pies overnight so that the oven was completely free for the turkey the next day.  While they weren't having a huge amount of people over, he had to make several pies, so that there would be plenty of leftovers.  He had settled on pumpkin, apple, blueberry, and mud (the last was mainly because Bethany made her sad little pouty face at the thought of there being no chocolate, and he was always a sucker for his sister).  He put on his ipod and got down to work, loving the quiet of the kitchen, and thinking of learning to bake from his mom.

 

"Rise and shine, it's Turkey day." Carver rolled over and groaned, annoyed at his brother's cheefulness.  "Dude I was up late making pie, let me get a little more peace."  "Nah, too much to do, wake UP!" Garrett through open the curtains and bounced out.  Carver grumbled under his breath but went to hit the showers.  

A few hours later they were ready for all their guests, and the dining room did look amazing and the smells coming out of the kitchen were divine.  The three paused in the kitchen with a glass of wine each and Garrett said quietly, "To Mom and Dad." The three clinked and smiled sadly.  They were all generally okay, but really missed their parents on days like this.  Luckily they couldn't get to maudlin as Bela showed up and soon after Anders and Merrill as well.  Everyone was chatting and happy when the bell rang.  Carver went to answer it, pleased to see Cullen standing there. "Dude, you made it, come on in."  Cullen looked awkward as he handed over a couple bottles of wine, "Are you sure that this is not an imposition?"  "Nah, we have tons of food." He walked his boss to the library where everyone was hanging out.  Cullen was confused by the warm greeting that everyone gave him and looked to Carver "What, it's a holiday, everyone here is crazy, but nice."  Cullen nodded and Carver added, "Plus we are drinking a lot, it spikes the friendly factor."

Dinner was a rousing success, and everyone gourged themselves on too much food.  Cullen was nervous but soon warmed up to the group (though he had no idea how to respond to Isabela's flirting, especially since she did it while sitting on the lap of her boyfriend).  It was agreed that they would retire to the library for whiskey and coffee, and wait a little bit before eating pie.  Everyone was a little loose, a lot happy and various stages of tipsy when Garrett get a text that the other men were on their way.  Carver sat up and tried to straighten his tie (not that he had dressed up for Fenris or anything).  Bethany snorted and tried to help but was drunk enough to be useless.   Carver got up, "I'll go get the pies and stuff and we can eat them in here."  He hurried to the kitchen and started organizing a couple of carry trays.  Cullen came along to help the young man out, "Who is that is coming over?" Carver paused his fussing, "Oh it's just Vael and Fenris." Cullen's mouth fell open, "You mean Prince Sebastian Vael of Starkhaven?" "Yeah, Seb" Cullen looked so lost, "Is that a problem?" 

"No Carver, I just didn't realize your family is so well connected."

"Not really, I mean yeah Mom was titled, but we know Seb because Garrett did a few odd jobs for him a few years ago.  He's a pretty decent fellow once you get passed all the pomp and seriousness." Both men picked up the laden trays and brought them back to the library.  They got there just as Sebastian and Fenris were walking in.  As usual Sebastian looked charming and impeccable, and Fenris looked intimidating and grumpy.  Once everyone was ensconced in the library Carver introduced his boss to the two men.  "I heard your lecture on ethics and charitable donations, it was a fascinating talk." Carver looked at Cullen who was now blushing and ducking his head.  Sebastian smiled easily, "It was a good event, I'm glad you enjoyed the talk."  Garrett had started cutting into the pies and called everyone to come get some.  "How was your dinner Seb?" At this Fenris could be heard grumbling under his breath, and Sebastian shook his head.  "It was boring, but necessary, these trade agreements will benefit both Kirkwall and Starkhaven." Fenris grumbled a little more and Sebastian laughed, "He's just annoyed because one of the women there was rather agressive in her flirting."

"I am not exotic, nor am I your pet." Everyone in the know in the room winced.  If someone had said things along those lines they were lucky that all he was doing was grumbling and not throwing stuff at walls.  Carver quickly leaned over and handed Fenris a plate, "Here have pie, pie makes everything better."  It seemed that looking at Carver had Fenris relaxing just a little bit. Fenris took a small bite and made a happy, yummy noise that made Carver's insides quiver.  Fenris soon demolished his slice and looked longingly at the trays.  "Would you like another slice?  We have a couple of different flavours..." "No, more apple." At this definitive statement Carver looked up and Fenris blushed a little, "I like apple." Carver handed him another slice and just sat back to enjoy the noises of pleasure that Fenris made as he ate.

A few hours later a couple of sad, lonely slices remained, and everyone was happy, full, and plastered.  Sebastian and Cullen had spent most of the evening talking only to each other, and Cullen managed to blush only two thirds of the time.  When the clock struck 11, Cullen realized that he had been imposing too long, "I am sorry for taking up too much of your time, it is late, and I should go." Sebastian looked a little sad at this, but ever polite nodded his head and expressed his pleasure at meeting the man.  Cullen stood and was pulling out his phone to call a cab when Garrett called out, "Where are you going?" "Home" Cullen said, thinking it would be obvious.  "No you're not, you're staying in here." Cullen looked confused and turned to Carver for clarification. "Sorry Cullen, but it is tradition, you're staying.  Look up top" Cullen looked up to the second level of the balcony and saw stacks of pillows and blankets.  "Everyone always sleeps over after Thanksgiving, that way no one worries about how much they've eaten and drunk.  We have spare pjs." As Carver said this Bethany was tossing new sets of jammies at everyone in attendance.  They were all absurd flannel sets covered in kittens and puppies.  He looked around and everyone even the grumpy fellow with the prince was taking this as matter of fact (though he looked a little extra grumpy that his set was covered in little happy kittens).  Cullen shrugged and smiled, wondering if this is what it meant to be a part of something, something close to family.

********

It was 3am and Carver couldn't sleep.  He snuck out of the pile of limbs, feeling both content and sad - his mother would have loved the sight of all those people cuddled in rather ugly pjs (seriously, where had Bethany found them?). He went to the kitchen, not really hungry but needing something, and as ever a bit of pie could fix many of life's ills.  He stood, leaning back against the counter, with the last of the apple pie in front of him.  He was lost in thought when he heard a throat clear beside him.  "Perhaps, I may partake of that bit of pie as well?" Fenris sounded so polite and formal, and Carver couldn't help but laugh a little. "Yeah, go nuts." Fenris smiled happily and wolfed down the last of the apple pie.  "It is really some of the best pie I've ever had."  "The secret is the dash of vanilla whiskey that is added to the apples." "Hmmm" Fenris made more of those happy yummy sounds that went straight to the core of Carver. "What bakery are they from, I will have to buy one sometime."

Carver blushed and looked down at the ground. "Ummm, actually I made them." Fenris looked surprised, and Carver added quietly, "I could make you one sometime, if you like."

"I would like that." Fenris said, boosting himself up to sit on the counter.  This brought the two men close to a height, as Fenris was a little short, and Carver was a lot tall.  "This has been a good night."  Carver couldn't help but agree.  They stayed like that in companionable silence for a few moments and Carver tried to think of something to say.  Eventually his mouth decided to act without his brain's consent and say, "Want to make out a little?" Carver stared at Fenris in horror.  He couldn't believe he had said that, he tried to be sophisticated around the older man, and ended up sounding so painfully young.  He knew that Fenris was 9 or 10 years older than his 21 and at that moment felt everyone of those years difference when Fenris looked at him blankly.  "Sorry, Maker I'm an idiot, I'll just be going now."  Carver tried to walk around and past Fenris' seated form on the counter, but was stopped by a tug on the back of his puppy pajamas.  He turned and looked to see the older man smiling.  Carver felt himself being drawn closer and closer to Fenris until he was standing in between the man's legs.  Fenris placed a hand along Carver's jaw and Carver leaned into those long, delicate looking fingers. Fenris chastely brushed his mouth against Carver's and then smiled, it was the look of a predator seeing a promising meal.

"Yes, I would like to make out." Fenris crushed his mouth to Carver's and the kiss quickly became wet and messy and so amazing that Carver whimpered.  Fenris worked his way along Carver's jaw, down to the crux of shoulder and neck and then bit and sucked hard. "Did you just give me a hickey?" Carver was stunned and Fenris smirked, "I thought that was rather a prerequisite of making out, is it not?" Carver laughed and agreed, "Continue on then."  The two men kissed and bit and hugged for awhile learning the taste of each other and might have gone further if Garrett hadn't walked in looking for more pie himself.  The eldest Hawke yelped and called out for brain bleach and Carver flushed with embarrassment.  Fenris hopped down from the counter and looked to his friend and said simply, "You might as well get used to the sight of me kissing your brother, it will happen again."  He almost stalked out of the kitchen and Carver couldn't help the huge, dorky smile that crossed his face.  Garrett groaned at the look and added, "You two are sleeping at opposite ends of the library for the rest of the night." Carver didn't care, he was already baking pies for Fenris in his head, and thinking about kisses that taste like cinnamon. 


End file.
